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Circular vs Linear Timelines
It can be argued that by reversing through time, Zira, Cornelius, and Milo changed the course of the planet's history and that the events of Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes were therefore nullified - a Linear (altered) timeline rather than the looping, unchanging series of events that a Circular timeline represents. The evidence in support of this theory rests on Cornelius' sworn statement in Escape from the Planet of the Apes in which he tells of the origins of his society and of an ape named Aldo who first defied his human masters after five centuries of slavery. The events of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes went on to completely contradict this history of the ape rebellion, instead showing Zira and Cornelius' son Caesar leading the ape revolution after a mere eight years of servitude. When creating a final chapter in the Apes saga, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the issue was raised about whether the ending should slide towards the ape master/mute human society depicted in the first film, or should an alternative history provide a more optimistic future. Otto Hasslein had already mentioned the possiblity of altering history in Escape.. when he proposed ending the genetic line of the time-travelling apes. His theories were echoed by Virgil during the course of Battle.. and seized upon by Caesar, who wanted to avoid the planet's destruction 2000 years in his future. Writing the story outline for Battle.. (then named ''Epic of the Planet of the Apes''), John William Corrington & Joyce Hooper Corrington were more explicit in their view on the altered timeline than in anything that appeared on-screen: the prologue and epilogue of the movie are set in 2670 A.D.; the Lawgiver is now benevolent towards humans (as opposed to the anti-human fanatic suggested in Planet.. and Beneath..) - "this difference is due to alterations of that historical track which we have seen worked out in previous films...these changes in ape history are due primarily to the influence of Caesar on apes and humans". They went on, in the same outline, to underline the point thus: "The main premise of 'Epic' is that Caesar, discovering the tapes ...determines that the course of history must be changed such that when Taylor arrives two millenia later he will find peace and justice instead of the slavery and brutality of 'Planet' which led directly to the atomic destruction of the world by the doomsday bomb.... The perspective given us by the prologue-epilogue frame indicates that Caesar has some success since an integrated ape-human society is awaiting the coming of Taylor, but the question of the planet's ultimate destiny is left open." The same outline also featured the ancestors of the mutants from Beneath.. with the very bomb that would destroy the Earth, and ended with a human child and an ape child having a fight. The finished film removed the scenes with the bomb and reduced the fight to a chimp child cheekily pulling the hair of a human girl, making the planet's destruction look even less likely. However, the final shot of the statue of Caesar shedding a tear was deliberately vague - the first Corrington outline seemed to suggest it was because of the two children fighting, and Paul Dehn, writer of the earlier treatments and of the previous three movies stated that the tear on the statue of Caesar at the end of the film was to tell the audience that Caesar's efforts would ultimately fail''Planet of the Apes Revisited'' by Joe Russo and Larry Landsman (Page 211) (Dehn had previously written Conquest of the Planet of the Apes intending to construct a circular timeline despite it contradicting his earlier scripts, saying, "I fitted it together so that it fitted in with the beginning of 'Apes 1', so that the wheel had come full circle and one could stop there quite happily, I think."'Cinefantastique Planet of the Apes Issue' (1972) at Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive). The released version of Battle..., though, could also interpret Caesar's tear as a tear of joy at the human/ape integration that he had achieved. * For a detailed breakdown of the sequence of events in a Linear Apes timeline, see :[http://pota.goatley.com/magazines/comics-unlimited-apes-timeline.pdf A Chronology of the Planet of the Apes] created by Nigel Brown in 1975. It is possible, by employing the Linear Timeline theory, to create an entirely variant future for the planet beyond the conclusion of Battle.., with numerous possibilities. The concept of Taylor crash-landing on an altered-future Earth was supposedly the basis for an abandoned Planet of the Apes sequel being developed by James Cameron around 1997. The same theory could also allow the ''Apes'' TV series to be included in the same continuity as the movies; the photograph of a futuristic New York in 2503 would place the series in the original timeline where an ape revolution would not take place until over 500 years after Zira and Cornelius' appearance. One could even suppose that the Return to the Planet of the Apes animated series could be placed in the altered timeline as an alternative version of the events of 3979, or that the different date readings in Planet.. and Beneath.. might be explained by them being in different (albeit remarkably similar) timelines, though these possibilities would imply that mankind was still destined to be dominated by the apes regardless of the changed course of history. External Links * Hunter's Planet of the Apes Scripts Archive References ----